The Hope of Therapy by Paul Gordon
Therapy is inherently an ethical endeavour, both in the sense that the therapist is called upon to be responsible to and for the other who seeks help, and in the sense that it is inevitably bound up with ideas about how we should live and how we should treat one another. Therapy is not a matter of technique but is rather an art or craft and has much to learn from other forms of art and craft, such as painting, fiction, music and poetry. Like artists, therapists need to feel free if they are to be truly creative. This book is an argument for that therapeutic freedom. Like art, therapy inevitably carries within it an idea of hope, hope both for the individual who seeks help and hope for a better world.
To heal somebody you need first to be an expert in recognising the woundspaul Gordon knows about the 100 despairs hidden behind the term flexibility, the emotional mutilations inflicted by the present global economy. In this green oasis of a book there's a well of compassion. It will help you to help - John Berger, novelist, critic and essayist. This is a small book with a powerful message. The author's thesis is that therapy is not a scientific or technical process but 'rather an art of craft requiring a particular sensiblilty or dispostition' which he sees as an ethical endeavour. He presents his well-reasoned rationale thoughtfully, humanely and with passion - his desire is to eradicate smugness and quick cures, and to make inflexible frameworks more flexible. Jenny Bloomer, Counsellor/Psychotherapist, Therapy Today July 2009
Paul Gordon has been working as a psychotherapist in different settings for 25 years. He works in private practice and as a therapist to one of the Philadelphia Association community households. He lives in London with his wife and two children. As well as his two PCCS titles, he is also the author of Face to Face: Therapy as ethics (1999), co-editor of Between Psychotherapy and Philosphy: Essays from the Philadelphia Association (2004). His most recent book is Vagabond Witness: Victor Serge and the politics of hope (2013).
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781906254117 |
| ISBN 10 | 1906254117 |
| Title | The Hope of Therapy |
| Author | Paul Gordon |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | PCCS Books |
| Year published | 2008-12-18 |
| Number of pages | 129 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |